C. Sleeter

Chapter 1

Standards, Multicultural Education and Central Curriculum Questions

Sleeter Notes
Chapter 1
Standards, Multicultural Education and Central Curriculum Questions

• Standards and diverse funds of Knowledge
• Central Curriculum Questions
  • What purposes
  • How should knowledge be selected and who selects it
  • What is the nature and the relationship of students and learning
  • How should curriculum and learning be evaluated and who is accountable
  • The Multicultural Movements and Curriculum
    • Civil rights
    • Woman’s rights
    • Mainstreaming Movement
    • Second Language Learners
    • How Multicultural Movement addresses 4 questions:
      • What purposes- Social improvement – in those whose lives are marginalized.
      • How should knowledge be selected and who selects it – Opening up who gets to decide what knowledge is chosen and who selects it; opened up diverse areas of knowledge and research
      • What is the nature and the relationship of students and learning – Challenges deficit perspectives of historically marginalized communities and how kids learn
      • How should curriculum and learning be evaluated and who is accountable – Have given communities (marginalized communities) the accountability for their students
      • The Standards Movement and Curriculum
        • Not new – cycle through history; Cubberley
        • Reform – A Nation at Risk (1983)
        • 90’s – multiculturalism hurting schools; national curriculum and standards
        • NCLB – 2001
        • How Standards Movement addresses 4 Questions:
          • What purposes- Business community and conservatives have defined what is normal; main purpose make U.S. more competitive globally; lesser goal – all same language, etc.
          • How should knowledge be selected and who selects it – Consensus at state level by experts
          • What is the nature and the relationship of students and learning – Children are empty vessels with knowledge to be filled; content/state standards used (except reading strategies)
          • How should curriculum and learning be evaluated and who is accountable – Standardized tests given; schools and teachers held accountable
          • Framework of Multicultural Curriculum Design

Transformative Intellectual Knowledge

Classroom Resources

Concept, Big Idea

Students and Community

Academic Challenge

Teacher’s Ideology

Assessment

Chapter 2

Teachers' Beliefs About Knowledge

• Teachers’ beliefs
• Teachers reflect on their Trabeliefs

Ideology: beliefs, perspectives, how we grew up

Epistemology: how we know what we know

• Self examination to action – using ideologies and epistemologies

Chapter 3

Designing Curriculum Around Big Ideas

Using Wiggins and McTighe and Understanding by Design

Chapter 5

Transformative Intellectual Knowledge and Curriculum
Transformative Intellectual Knowledge (p. 83)
1 Serves as an umbrella term for bodies of knowledge that have been historically marginalized, or subjugated.
2 Draws attention to understandings that challenge mainstream assumptions that reenvision the world in ways that would benefit historically oppressed communities and support justice.
3 Highlights the work of intellectuals... who have training in basing conclusions on evidence and in judging evidence on which claims rest.

Chapter 6 Students as Curriculum

(p. 106.) ...planning curriculum to connect students' community-based knowledge with academic knowledge and to enable students to learn from each other.

• Interview students and community members to find out what their knowledge base is.
• Tour the community with students to find out what the student perspective is.